Mediagazer: Al Jazeera English unblocks its YouTube videos for US-based viewers (Janko Roettgers/GigaOM)

9:00 PM ET, September 24, 2013

Top News:

Suzanne LaBarre / Popular Science:

Why We're Shutting Off Our Comments — Starting today, PopularScience.com will no longer accept comments on new articles. Here's why. — Comments can be bad for science. That's why, here at PopularScience.com, we're shutting them off. — It wasn't a decision we made lightly.

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
YouTube Announces A New Commenting System, Powered By Google+, With Threaded, Ranked And Private Conversations

Discussion: AllThingsD, YouTube Blog, CNET, VentureBeat, @shwood, VatorNews, @copyrightlibn, ReadWrite, Google Operating System, WebProNews, @iceflowstudios, The Next Web, @joshconstine, Pocket-lint, The Verge, @djsnm, @fredericl and Electronista

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

No new TV viewers or newspaper subscribers are being born, BuzzFeed president says — Speaking at a NewsCred conference last week, BuzzFeed President Jon Steinberg talked about his theory that content, and the ways it is distributed, will be “completely decoupled, I would say, in the next five years.”

Discussion: @noirinhegarty, @rajunarisetti, @dianaruggontv and @stuartdredge

P.J. Bednarski / mediapost.com:

Iger Sees Little Cord-Cutting, Says Netflix is Good, Not Dominant — Walt Disney chairman and CEO Robert Iger, appearing at a Goldman Sachs investor conference in New York today, no doubt is getting a lot of feedback from his statement that, as far as cord cutting is concerned, “we don't see evidence of this occurring.”

Discussion: MediaPost, Home Media Magazine, Variety, Los Angeles Times and Deadline.com

Tony Maglio / The Wrap:

Aereo Expands to Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and San Antonio — Aereo, Inc. is adding four new cities to its nationwide expansion: Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio, Indianapolis, Indiana, and San Antonio, Texas. — The combined population of those four markets is eight million people.

Discussion: Radio & Television …, Broadcasting & Cable, CNET, Variety, Broadcast, VentureBeat, Digital Journal and Variety

Tim Kenneally / The Wrap:

TheGrill: Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia - 'Cable's an Inefficient Packaging System' — Aereo — which has drawn the legal ire of networks for providing their content via tiny antennas — has been painted as a potential killer of the television and cable industries.

Discussion: Media Money …

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Dan Colarusso named executive editor of Reuters Digital — Dan Colarusso is the new executive editor of Reuters Digital, making him the third person this year to hold that title at the news service. — His appointment, announced in an internal memo obtained by Capital …

Discussion: Politico, @niemanlab, @joepompeo, FishbowlNY, The Wrap, @peterlauria3, @antderosa, @peterlauria3 and Talking Biz News

Matthew Kassel / The New York Observer:

CUNY J-School Will Get a Center for Business Journalism — A new business journalism center is coming to the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism, thanks to a $3 million donation from the Harold W. McGraw Jr. Family Foundation. — The foundation was established …

Melanie Grayce West / Wall Street Journal:
Publishing Family Funds Business Journalism Center at CUNY

Discussion: @timcatts and Talking Biz News

Eric Newton / Columbia Journalism Review:

Paying attention to the shield law's critics — Journalists shouldn't blindly support the shield law without taking in the whole picture — When a Senate committee this month approved the “Free Flow of Information Act of 2013,” applause was heard from scores of media shield law supporters …

Discussion: BuzzMachine, @heychrisbarr, Slate, Kirk LaPointe's … and @jeffjarvis

Dean Starkman / Columbia Journalism Review:

AllThingsD and the limits of the personal franchise news model — A few breakout stars don't signal a general power shift in journalism — A couple of weeks ago, Felix Salmon asked: — “Can Rupert Murdoch hold on to Kara Swisher?” — Well, now we have our answer.

Discussion: @felixsalmon, @karaswisher, @emilybell and @ampressman

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Pinterest Appeals To Publishers With New Article Pins, Pushes To Become A Bookmarking & “Read It Later” Service — Only days after announcing the launch of ads, social networking site Pinterest is now making an appeal to publishers. The company is today rolling out an updated “article” …

Discussion: Oh, How Pinteresting!, Fast Company, Betabeat, Guardian, VatorNews, Engadget, ReadWrite, @acbarette, The Verge, Mashable and GigaOM

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Twitter will send alerts to your phone about popular people and their tweets — Twitter will begin sending new push notifications to users based on the activity of the people they follow, whether it's a new account or a popular tweet. Based on Twitter's 6-month-old MagicRecs account …

Discussion: blog.twitter.com, CNET, AllThingsD, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Mashable, Los Angeles Times, @panzer, The Next Web and @calebgarling

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

UK music magazine NME experiments with charging for enhanced version of cover story — NME to experiment with online charges — Magazine will charge 69p for access to ‘enhanced digital’ version of its cover feature but says there are no plans for a full paywall

Rem Rieder / USA Today:

TV news should have on-air fact-checkers — You don't usually think of ESPN's Tony Kornheiser as a journalism ethics sage. A font of sports one-liners, sure. An adviser on ways to improve news outlets' accountability, not so much. But the co-host of Pardon the Interruption is on to something …

Discussion: @antderosa, TVSpy and @davidfolkenflik

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Al Jazeera English unblocks its YouTube videos for US-based viewers — US-based news junkies can once again access reports produced by Quatar-based Al Jazeera English online after the network stopped blocking access to its YouTube videos from within the US Tuesday.

Discussion: @ajecathturner and @brianstelter

Karen Fratti / 10,000 Words:

BBC.com and Quora Partner Up For New Column — BBC.com and Quora announced a partnership this week. It's called the Quora Column, and BBC.com contributors will write columns based on popular discussions on the Q&A site. — They launched a trial column this summer on the travel pages, where it's been a success.

Discussion: mediapost.com and Slate

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Former Tribune Co. executive sentenced to 2 years — U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan Tuesday sentenced former Tribune Co. executive Stephanie Pater to two years in prison, Meredith Rodriguez reports. Pater, whom former Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell appointed to her post in 2008 …

Jim Romenesko:

Rem Rieder is named USA Today feature editor — Rem Rieder, who resigned as American Journalism Review editor in June to become USA Today media editor, is taking on the additional duties of feature editor at Gannett's flagship paper. The editor's memo: